Disinformation researcher says Harvard pushed her out to protect Meta

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December 4th, 2023

Joan Donovan, then-research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, speaks remotely during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, on Capitol Hill, April 27, 2021, in Washington. The prominent disinformation scholar who left Harvard University in August 2023 has accused the school of muzzling her speech and stifling — then dismantling — her research team as it launched a deep dive in late 2021 into a trove of Facebook files she considers the most important documents in internet history. (Al Drago/Pool Photo via AP, File)

A well-known online disinformation researcher has accused Harvard University of pushing her out and shutting down her work to shield the school’s relationship with Facebook owner Meta.

In a legal filing sent to the U.S. Department of Education and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, Joan Donovan accused the university of violating her free speech rights and the school’s own commitment to academic freedom “in order to protect the interests of high-value donors with obvious and direct ties to Meta/Facebook.”

Donovan alleged the pressure campaign came as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the charitable organization established by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, was pledging $500 million to fund a new university-wide center on artificial intelligence at Harvard.

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